1.. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to system testing and, more particularly, to navigation systems testing.
2.. Description of Related Art
Preinstalled vehicle navigation systems are optionally available on nearly all private vehicles sold in developed countries, and increasingly, in developing countries. Portable navigation devices, or PNDs, are becoming ubiquitous across the world due to their low cost and convenience. Worldwide commercial vehicle fleets are beginning to use navigation software and systems to enhance efficiency. On mobile phones too, navigation applications, or Location Based Services (LBS) applications, are emerging and are expected to become prevalent in the future. These “Navigation Systems” will continue to find wide applicability across a host of industries, device platforms and use cases.
Navigation Systems provide functionality that is very helpful in assisting the user in navigating along public roadways or walkways to a desired location. For example, vehicle Navigation Systems are capable of instructing a driver as to the location of the driven vehicle; providing turn-by-turn driving instructions to a destination optimized for time, distance, or other factors; displaying maps at any desired scale; and other such features. Similarly pedestrian oriented Navigation Systems can be used to orient a user traveling in an unknown area by providing visual maps with an indication of the user's current locations, to provide the user with suitable instructions for traveling by foot or public transportation to their desired destination etc. Other uses of these systems include enabling a user to search for places, services or items of interest in his/her vicinity, displaying current traffic or weather information for a selected region, searching for location-relevant information on the Internet, locating friends in the vicinity of the user, providing location relevant advertising to the user, etc. Specific functionality can also be provided for particular business or enterprise applications.
Navigation Systems often receive information and data from a variety of sources including Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), inertial sensors such as gyroscopes, various signals obtained from the vehicle such as speed signals, terrestrial analogue or digital radio signals and data from satellite broadcasts. Navigation Systems typically include hardware and software for handling and interpreting such information to provide the operator with desired functionality. The ability of Navigation System software and hardware to correctly handle and interpret information in an accurate and efficient manner increases the functionality, performance, and value of a Navigation System.
Current methodologies for testing Navigation Systems are costly, time-consuming, and cumbersome. Typically, testing involves both bench and field testing. Bench testing is used as much as possible to achieve the broadest and most efficient test coverage. Field testing is used to assess system elements which must be evaluated in the precise way that consumers use such systems—on the road. Much of the focus of field testing is on validating vehicle positioning, guidance prompt protocols and dynamic services such as real time traffic information. Field testing of vehicle Navigation Systems includes securing a Navigation System to a vehicle and monitoring the behavior of the system as the vehicle is driven in the field, i.e., along public roadways and thoroughfares where consumers are expected to use such a Navigation System. Such field-testing often includes monitoring the Navigation System during general operations such as the provisioning of guidance instructions, the determination of the vehicle's actual position and the provisioning of current traffic condition information. The Navigation System must be taken to many disparate locations and driven in the field to conduct sufficient national or international testing. In addition, once errors are uncovered, the errors must be corrected and the Navigation System may have to be returned to the location where the error was originally found to confirm that the correction yielded proper results. Similarly, pedestrian Navigation Systems are tested in the field by walking with the system as a pedestrian would and observing the behavior of the system. As will be appreciated, current testing protocols often require substantial time and financial resources to properly test a Navigation System and to prepare the system for release in the marketplace.
There is a need for systems and methods for expediting the testing of Navigation Systems to decrease the expense of testing and shorten the time to develop and market such Navigation Systems.